Grace Morrison

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If I could simultaneously give this book 1 star and 5 stars, I would. It is an incredible story that stays with you, and the characters slowly start to feel like your friends throughout the course of the story. This book will bring you pure joy and complete despair all within the same chapter. This book impacted me in ways I can’t explain, and it means a lot to me. Though I agree with all the other reader’s complaints about this story: it’s gratuitously sad at points, and can almost seem ridiculous in its indulgence, but the truth is, it’s not entirely unrealistic. Trauma tends to follow people who have been traumatized if they’re not able to break free of old patterns and survival mechanisms, so it’s not implausible for sure. But at a certain point, I did start to get bored of the pain Jude was going through, just because it started to feel slapstick in its repetition and drama. This was redeemed, however, simply because I am aware of how victims will unintentionally perpetuate their own abuse if they are unable to move on. Jude’s life story does not seem unlikely or unusual from my perspective. I do think the writing is fantastic, but my only complaint is that I personally wasn’t a fan of Yanagihara’s use of metaphor/analogy. Overall, I enjoyed her use of language and sentence structure. I didn’t think it was tedious like other people mentioned, but I suppose that’s subjective. I enjoyed the long-winded explanations of various feelings and settings, as I think it gave the story a very palpable quality. I agree with all the positive and negative reviews of this book. It has its flaws, but it also has its perfections. I feel for these characters in a way no other book has ever done for me. I think about this book constantly, even though I read it years ago. It’s an incredible book, both great and terrible, and while I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, it remains one of my favorites.

I came into this movie hoping for something uplifting and endearing, fully expecting it to be a feel-good movie of little substance. Instead, I was bombarded by a cast of completely unlikeable, one-dimensional characters in a film that felt like a manufactured, banal take on the Scrooge narrative archetype. The only likeable character in this film was the cat simply because it had no lines. This movie was undaring in the worst way, formulaic and politically correct for what I assume was the sake of the very obvious product placements so as to not deter consumers. I’m a liberal and even I was cringing at this movie’s attempt to appeal to left-leaning ideologies. I really wanted to like this movie, but was very disappointed. I don't mind formulas in film, but I do mind watching a two-hour-long play-by-play remake of the same narrative written a thousand times before. This movie made ME feel like the ultimate Scrooge, which is the exact opposite effect I wanted this movie to have on me. I left the theatre trying to decide which one of Tom Hanks’ various suicide methods to try out on myself since this movie turned me into the irredeemable curmudgeon he played at the beginning of the film. The rest of the cast made me feel sorry that Otto failed at his suicide attempts due to their incessant obnoxiousness. To call this movie a comedy is offensive in and of itself as someone who has both lost people to depression and struggles with it myself. For a movie claiming to be progressive, they certainly did their best to trivialize the topic of suicide and mental health by treating Otto’s failed attempts to off himself as some kind of comedic schtick. What part of this movie was supposed to be funny? This movie can’t seem to decide on a tone, leaving the audience unsure whether or not to laugh while a man holds a shotgun to his head. I’d like my money and time back.